Zuckerberg in Holocaust denial row [details here]
In an
interview with technology website Recode, Mr Zuckerberg said that he did not
believe such people should be removed from the site.
They were
not, he said, "intentionally" getting their facts wrong.
The comments
caused a backlash and Mr Zuckerberg later issued a clarification.
The original
comments, given in a wide-ranging interview with Recode, were made in response
to questions about what Facebook was doing to combat fake news and sites, such
as InfoWars, that promoted conspiracy theories.
In Myanmar,
also known as Burma, Facebook has been accused by UN investigators of
facilitating violence against Rohingya Muslims by allowing anti-Muslim hate
speech and fake news.
The social
network has now said that it will begin removing misinformation that could lead
to people being physically harmed.
When asked
about its policy on fake news, Mr Zuckerberg offered, without prompting, the
example of Holocaust deniers.
"I'm
Jewish and there's a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened,"
he told reporter Kara Swisher.
"I find
it deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, I don't believe that our
platform should take that down because I think there are things that different
people get wrong. I don't think that they're intentionally getting it wrong.
"Everyone
gets things wrong and if we were taking down people's accounts when they got a
few things wrong, then that would be a hard world for giving people a voice and
saying that you care about that."
The comments
caused a storm of protest.
Editor of
anti-fascist magazine Searchlight Gerry Gable told the BBC: "Zuckerberg
could kill much of this dangerous material getting worldwide distribution - but
he is a like a spoilt teenager."
"Because
of his financial powers, he just does a bit of tinkering without understanding
how this material could inspire crazy people to firebomb synagogues, mosques or
churches."
NBC News
reporter Benjy Sarlin tweeted asking whether Mr Zuckerberg thought the debate
over whether the Holocaust had happened was in "good faith".
Skip Twitter
post by @BenjySarlin
So apparently Mark Zuckerberg is under the
impression there's some good faith debate going on over whether the Holocaust
happened? https://t.co/Qdn4E7n2jl pic.twitter.com/ClLngQqesS
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) July 18, 2018
And Matt
Ford, a reporter at The Atlantic, pointed out that Mr Zuckerberg had not even
been asked about the Holocaust - "he just said he'd keep it on Facebook on
his own".
The second-wildest thing about the
Zuckerberg interview is that he wasn't even asked about Holocaust denial, he
just said he'd keep it on Facebook on his own https://t.co/4mI8k4pssE
pic.twitter.com/pPUc4Tn23v
— Matt Ford (@fordm) July 18, 2018
After the
comments drew fire from many, Mr Zuckerberg issued a clarification.
"I
enjoyed our conversation yesterday," he said in an email to the reporter,
published on the Recode site.
"But
there's one thing I want to clear up. I personally find Holocaust denial deeply
offensive and I absolutely didn't intend to defend the intent of people who
deny that."
Facebook has
faced criticism over the way the platform can amplify false reports and has
been engaged in an advertising campaign both on and offline declaring:
"Fake news is not your friend."
But it has
faced questions about why it continues to allow sites such as InfoWars - which
has called the Sandy Hook massacre a hoax - to remain on the platform.
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